Professor Rana Mitter on the trial of Gu Kailai

Rana Mitter has been quoted in various publications on the trail of Gu Kailai, wife of the former Chinese Politburo member Bo Xilai, for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

"It is almost the opposite of a show trial: it's a trial of procedure, to tick certain boxes and show there is the rule of law in China," Rana said in The Guardian on 7 August. "It is an attempt to get this out of the way ... The flipside is the acute worry that if there is too much investigation and exposure of the background of what went on in court, other powerful leaders might in some way be pulled in."

On the implications for husband Bo Xilai, Rana commented in The Daily Telegraph on the same day: "My sense is that because Bo has been so completely brought down by this and because so much mud has been thrown at him, I would find it hard to see how it would be possible to bring him back […] That strikes me as a very tall order."

Rana was also interviewed on the trial on ‘The World At One’ for BBC Radio 4 (9 August), which can be heard by clicking here [0.11.12 on clock], and on The Voice of Russia (9 August), which can be heard here.